Pretty huge backup discrepency here

twhiting9275

Verified User
Joined
Apr 10, 2004
Messages
58
Location
Cedar Falls, IA
There are some pretty huge backup discrepencies here that need to be fixed, from a user (and admin's) POV.

I had to do some moving of accounts this weekend (changing providers, all that), and ran through the DA admin backup process. No options were unchecked (all were checked), the process was begun from the administrative panel, as 'admin'. Backups were made to /home/admin/backups, and backups restored on new machine as /home/admin/backups/ .. Should work as designed, and restore the whole account, right? One would logically think so,, right? Yeah, not so much

Even looking at the daily backups made via cron (again, through admin panel), there are discrepencies that need to be resolved. When you say you're going to backup an account, one would actually expect the whole account (as the user has it) to be backed up, not parts of it, not conveniently leaving out what you don't want to back up, but the whole account !

For starters:
Cron jobs ... Not backed up properly . Not a huge deal for a server admin, but again, when you say you're going to back something up, it needs to be done properly.

Now, the account (homedir) itself.... I noticed some size discrepencies from my own backups (.tar.bz2) and yours (.tar.gz) . Total about a gig and a half missing (from 10 accounts), so I did some digging.. What I found was pretty alarming... Directadmin leaves directories out of the home backup for the user. Like, just pretends they don't exist. The following directories are simply left out:

  • /home/$user/bin
  • /home/$user/backup (really?!?!?!?)
  • /home/$user/public_html
  • /home/$user/tmp
  • more (??)
Now, some of these can be excused, but that's not the point here. The point is that if a system admin creates a backup for a user, that user will rightly expect the full account.. Not just parts of it. Not how 'directadmin wants it to be' (a-la removing public_html from the root) Not just a few pieces here and there, all of it. Passing this partial backup off to a user is just dangerous, and incredibly bad.

Attachments included show what I'm talking about with just one account . I did verify that this happened as standard, with every account (one of them actually has legitimate user backups, from dev work in /home/user/backup). Thankfully , I still had the old server handy to restore that data from, but that's not the point here. This should not be necessary.. At all.
 

Attachments

  • backup-cron.jpg
    backup-cron.jpg
    109.7 KB · Views: 14
  • backup-homedir.jpg
    backup-homedir.jpg
    137.3 KB · Views: 13
  • da-backup-options.PNG
    da-backup-options.PNG
    133.3 KB · Views: 8
  • user crontab.PNG
    user crontab.PNG
    133.7 KB · Views: 8
  • user homedir.jpg
    user homedir.jpg
    157.7 KB · Views: 8
You should contact DA support to get some clarification and maybe debug with them what is going on, though i get this is a issue i would still post it in a positive matter. Reading if i found it pretty harsh to read.
 
I have transfer many clients from one servers to another servers so many time with the standard backup files which are generated with the standard backup software from DA and never had problems with missing files, mysql, email, and the regular hosting data (read website) was always there.

Is it possible that there are problems with your server setup ?
 
the regular hosting data (read website) was always there.
An account is more than 'the regular hosting data'. MUCH more.
When you backup anything, it's reasonably expected that all of it is backed up, unless you specifically state it shouldn't be. Not so in this case.

there are problems with your server setup
Riiiiight, two separate servers (one less than a week old) , every single account behaving exactly the same way, but the problem is with my server setup, not the software handling the backups. No, this is 100% on Directadmin and needs to be fixed on their end.
 
Hi, maybe i was not clear:

1.What I mean with regular data with website is : all directorys and files under the main directory of that user (/domains/username) + all DNS info and e-Mails of that client + Subdomains
2. Please quote the whole text, I said "Is it possible... " so there is still an chance that your setup was not properly ,

I have had never heard or read before in this forum with problem as yours, maybe that is the reason that you dont get any reply here

However if you are really sure that it is a bug better contact Directadmin support team directly.
 
Once again, there is MUCH more to a user's account than just "a website". Just because you want to continue to harp on and focus on the "website" and "domain" (or subdomain) does not mean that this is all there is to the account. This is just ridiculous to assume, and shows you shouldn't even be bothering to discuss this

contact Directadmin support team
Why? So they can claim it's "by design"? That's the point.. it is by design. This is a flawed design and needs to be fixed. It's not a 'bug'.. Directadmin literally , intentionally removes things from the backup. The only way to get this fixed is to make this very public, not hide it in some back room.
 
Why should I “contact them”?
They know this is broken .
They know how their software works .
They designed it that way

All contacting them will do is get them to confirm that this is how it works . This IS NOT how it should work, which is the point of making this public , not private. Things like this don’t get fixed in private, they get buried and ignored
 
No, it doesn’t work “as it should work”. It works as designed, which is flawed, and that is the point of this thread

I have been in this business since 2000, uses multiple types of backup software , from custom built to cPanel and CWP to jetbackuo and many others . They have all handled things exactly as they SHOULD . Full user backups .

Leaving something out of a backup because “design” means that design is flawed.
There is no “loop” in backing up bin, shin, backup, or even public_html directories. That’s just a lazy mans excuse for not doing the job correctly
 
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